I spoke at the AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry Conference on “How to Build Trust with Internal Controls.” As I began wading through the 568 pages of the DOJ Inspector General Report on the Actions by the FBI and DOJ (Yes, I am that kind of geek), I was struck by the common role that weak internal controls […]
Compliance Warriors
5 Ways to Reduce the Risk of a Conflict of Interest
In a previous post, we looked at 6 questions you should ask to tell how safe your federal grant is from conflicts of interest. In today’s post, we’ll look at what you can do to reduce the risk of a conflict of interest affecting your organization’s federal funding. Here are 5 Ways to Reduce the Risk of […]
13 Ways to Keep Grant Funds Flowing
Ever wish you had a crystal ball to see how the mind of Uncle Sam looks at grant funds? Think the Uniform Guidance is super complicated? Or maybe you just wish you had a checklist of what gets grant recipients into trouble and how to avoid those “speed bumps”? It may seem a little “geeky,” but […]
Mini-Case Study: Lax Procedures Put Billions of Transportation Grants at Risk
Transportation grants can be at risk when procurement procedures are missing or incomplete. With all the infrastructure and transportation grants flowing of late, we decided to revisit this cautionary tale from the past. Here’s what happened… An Inspector General report highlighted the risk to over $7 billion dollars in undisbursed funds for the High Speed […]
What is Prior Approval
When you work with federal grants, it’s just a matter of time before someone says, “We need the prior approval of the funder” to do this or that. But this vague term “prior approval” may leave you wondering two important questions when you manage grants: When does 2 CFR Part 200 aka, the Uniform Guidance, […]
Grant Management: Do You Make These 10 Mistakes?
Sometimes, we get lost in the jargon of internal controls and grant management and forget the role of strong checks and balances in increasing trust with our funders, employees, and the general public. (I shared this message on how internal controls can increase trust with federal grants at an AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry conference in Washington.) How to […]
